Clinical Trial Definition Continues to Cause Confusion

February 12, 2020

Towards the end of January, FABBS started receiving emails from worried researchers saying their proposals to NIH had been withdrawn before review because they were not classified as clinical trials, and perception was that they should have been. As readers may recall, in October 2014, NIH expanded their definition of clinical trials to include Basic Experimental Studies involving Humans (BESH). While the enforcement of registration in grants.gov for BESH had been

NIMH Strategic Plan Update, New BRAIN Initiative Director

February 12, 2020

The Advisory Council for the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) met on Tuesday, February 4. NIMH is currently in the process of updating their strategic plan. A request for feedback went out to the community on December 2, 2019 with comments due on January 1, 2020. NIMH then provided an two additional weeks to comment, pushing back their timeline to present their revisions to Council to their next meeting on May 19th, 2020.

Dr. Gordon, NIMH Director, explained

NSB Releases Report on the State of U.S. Science

January 29, 2020

On January 15, the National Science Board released a new and improved version of previous reports –  The State of U.S. Science and Engineering. A briefing on Capitol Hill included information from chapters on science and math education, higher education, the technical workforce, and scientific publications. NSF will release four more chapters in the coming months —reporting global spending patterns, academic research, trade and industry, knowledge transfer, and

FABBS Submits Comments on NIMH and NEI Strategic Plans and NIH Data Sharing Proposal

January 15, 2020

In response to requests for comment, FABBS provided feedback to draft strategic plans for the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Eye Institute (NEI). FABBS collaborated with the Coalition for the Advancement and Application of Psychological Sciences (CAAPS) on comments to NIMH. Dr. Josh Gordon, NIMH Director, had said that the revision would be a ‘refresh’ rather that a ‘rewrite’. The joint comments commended the NIMH on important